article title: “1,000 miles from home on the wild prairie ... james case, george belcher gaston,...
TRANSCRIPT
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Article Title: “1,000 Miles From Home on the Wild Prairie”: Charles B Darwin‟s 1849
Nebraska Diary
Full Citation: Richard E Jensen, ed., “„1,000 Miles From Home on the Wild Prairie‟: Charles B Darwin‟s 1849
Nebraska Diary,” Nebraska History 85 (2004): 58-114
URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH2004Darwin.pdf
Date: 8/14/2012
Article Summary: Darwin‟s diary recounts his 1849 trip from Tennessee to the gold mines of California,
emphasizing his encounters with Indians, traders, and fur trappers. The section reproduced in this article extends
from his arrival in western Iowa to his departure from Fort Laramie.
Cataloging Information:
Names: Charles Ben Darwin, Elvira Gaston Platt (“Spuxpate”), Lester W Platt, Edmund McKinney, Big Elk, Ira D
Blanchard, James Case, George Belcher Gaston, David Hardin, Maria Cummings Gaston, Samuel Allis, Peter
Sarpy, Alexander Papin, Albert Fontenelle, James Cleghorn, Charles Frederick Ruff, Ebenezer Pomeroy, Thaddeus
Pomeroy, Marcellus Mathers, Bull‟s Tail, Robert Chilton, Benjamin Bonneville, John Dougherty, William A
Hammond, Antoine Robidoux, Antoine Leroux, William Lambert, Thomas Woinaski
Place Names: Kanesville, Iowa; Bellevue, Nebraska; Grand Island, Nebraska; Fort Kearney (Fort Childs),
Nebraska; Scottsbluff, Nebraska; Fort John (Fort Laramie), Wyoming
Indian Tribes/Bands Mentioned in the Diary: Panee (Pawnee), Omaha, Pottawatomies, Kaw (Kansa), Wyandots,
Delawares, Otos (Otoes), Sioux, Loup or Skidi
Keywords: Charles Ben Darwin, Elvira Gaston Platt, Ira D Blanchard, cholera, James Cleghorn, Charles Frederick
Ruff, William Lambert, George Belcher Gaston, Antoine Robidoux, Samuel Allis
Photographs / Images: traveler bound for the West (Illustrated News, February 5, 1848); inset page of Charles
Darwin‟s diary with instructions for its disposition should he die; Charles Darwin; an Indian (William Henry
Tappan, 1848); settlers breaking sod (Harper’s Weekly, May 9, 1868); Fort Kearney and log cabins (James F
Wilkins, 1849); Indian lodge (Karl Bodmer); Indian woman (Karl Bodmer); Indian women (William Henry
Tappan, 1848); stampeding horse (Harper’s Weekly, July 10, 1858); campfire scene and buffalo bull charging a
horseman (J Goldsborough Bruff, 1851); deserted Pawnee village (James F Wilkins, 1849); Indian warrior (Karl
Bodmer); 2 images of wagon train stopped for the night (Harper’s Weekly, December 23, 1871); Ballou‟s Pictorial
Drawing Room Companion, 1856); mountaineer (Harper’s Weekly, January 30, 1858); map showing the principal
landmarks mentioned by Darwin in his diary of travel in Nebraska; antelope (William Henry Tappan, 1848);
buffalo herd surrounded by wolves; riders climbing up out of a ravine (Harper’s Weekly, August 26, 1871); rider
shooting a buffalo (Harper’s Weekly, October 13, 1866); storm raging over a wagon train encampment (J
Goldsborough Bruff, 1851); wagon train attempting to ford a river; burial site ravaged by wild animals (Karl
Bodmer); burial platforms (William Minor Quesenberry, 1851); Castle Rock; Chimney Rock (James F Wilkins,
1849); Fort Laramie (Harper’s Weekly, July 10, 1858); hunter with slain stag